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Noah Bollinger
High Prophet Noah Bollinger is the currently ineffectual leader of the Brethren of the Shroud. Founding his religion from the ashes of the old world, Bollinger was ghoul who created his religion for ghouls and other mutants by extension. Now, the prophet’s project of mutant empowerment has become one of mutant supremacy despite his best wishes. His Brethren are now pitted against the Klansmen Confederacy, the Royaume, and others in an eternal war that Bollinger sees no way out of. Biography Life before the War In the early 2040s, when the Resource Wars had not even started yet in Europe, a child was born in the Bollinger family in Zurich, Switzerland. The mother was already quite old, in her late forties, at the time, as she had been unable to produce any offspring so far and was believed to be infertile. Because of it, the birth of their son was a very wonderful thing in this family of simple, middle-class folk. They named their son Noah, and there came no more children after him, for they were happy enough with the one child they had been blessed with. As young Noah Bollinger grew up, he displayed to have quite some intelligence in school. He was interested in science and mathematics, both in which he was very good, from an early age, and his parents made sure that he got one of the best educations possible in the schools of Zurich. But Noah would not be able to finish his studies. After the disbanding of the United Nations and the nuclear destruction of Tel Aviv, Noah's parents, like everyone else back then, were worried about the situation in Europe. So the Bollingers moved to another continent; a country with a bit more safety and stability; the United States of America. Monroe, Louisiana to be more exact. Noah finished his studies at Monroe's University of Louisiana summa cum laude, and he attained a degree in Physics. Soon afterwards, he managed to score a job at the local RobCo affiliation which was right next to his home, and he quickly became one of the brightest employees in the local office. His job as a mathematician and theoretical physicist involved helping in the improvement of the UOS, working on the Protectron's software to, amongst others, improve firing accuracy and aiding in the design of several components of what would become the Securitrons. When Noah applied for joining the team that was working on the joint project with General Atomics and the US Army, his request was denied. Angered and, maybe more important, disappointed, Noah started to do research on this project behind the backs of his RobCo superiors from this point on. After digging through secured RobCo files without authorization for several months, Noah had collected quite some dirt about his superiors. He collected these bits of information, planning on using it, should he ever be discovered, to spread the company's secrets to the world. During his investigations, Noah found several files from the partnership with Vault-Tec containing various sorts of information, like the results of soil tests at possible locations for the construction of new Vaults and blueprints of several mechanical components, including the Water Purifiers. Noah, who couldn't believe these things he had hacked into, wrote everything down in a notebook using a special code he had once learned. But a fellow employee, a man Noah had started to trust, had been keeping an eye on him, instructed by their RobCo superiors. One day, in the fall of 2075, this man broke into Noah's office and stole his precious notebook before showing it his instructors. This meant the end of Noah's career as Head of his department in Monroe. Luckily, RobCo remembered Noah's previous work and concluded that they shouldn't just discard such a valuable asset. So, they gave Noah a clean slate by transferring him to their facility in Meridian, Mississippi, although in a lesser function. Noah, who was very unhappy about his new position in Meridian, did his best for the next two years to try and get his old notebook, still in RobCo's possession, back from Monroe. He was unsuccessful, and he certainly lost all hope of ever retrieving the book when the Great War happened. The Great War On that fateful hour on the 23th of October, Noah was sitting in his office, working on yet another menial task meant to keep him occupied. For Noah, the Great War was quite different than from what he'd imagined. Not the world suddenly going to grow dark or the air turning into fire and burning his lungs, but something quite different. In fact, the sky became brighter than it had ever been, and in the west they could see a warm, orange glow. But those were just the first few minutes of the war. As Noah looked through his office window with several colleagues, he started to see the first mushroom clouds; pillars of fire and ash, they seemed. As the bombings came closer to Meridian, Noah and the rest of the staff quickly moved towards the basement and storage area. Not a reinforced structure built to withstand nuclear strikes, but better than nothing. Meridian, an important city with a five-figure population and an Army supply yard, was wrecked thoroughly, with the East End and Highlands districts suffering heavy damage. Luck or no luck, the fact is that the RobCo building was located on the outskirts of the city and did not suffer as much damage as the buildings in the center. The bomb meant to level the highway south, I-11, did not detonate and was stuck in the ground there for almost two hundred years. Life in Darkness David and the surviving Robco employees would be trapped in the basement of their old facility for the next two years. The night after the bombs fell, Noah listened intently as the RobCo building collapsed above him. It was obvious to Noah that the city was burning, and most everyone above-ground was dead. Noah was one of the few RobCo employees who did not completely panic in the aftermath of the bombs. The next few days in the basement of the RobCo building were quiet. Noah was one of the few people to keep their wits about them, and he encouraged everyone to take Med-X and Radaway to alleviate any radiation poisoning. This was mostly due to Noah's intense fear of dying which had plagued him for as long as nuclear annihilation had hung over his head. He had lost the faith he had been raised with years ago years earlier in favor of science, and that meant for Noah that the afterlife was nothing more than a void. For that reason, he was terrified of the concept of death. As the days rolled by, the Robco employees became more used to their life underground. They got used to the rationed food and water. At the same time, their supply of anti-radiation chems finally ran out. With that, the survivors in the basement of Robco building began to change slowly but surely. Parts of their skin began to slough off, and tufts of hair fell out. Many of the survivors panicked at this, and a couple even committed suicide using flare guns and pistols. Hope seemed to be fleeing from them. That was when Noah took things into his own hands. As he himself had been rotting, the wheels in Noah's mind started turning. He began to stop thinking as he once did, in terms of reason and healthy skepticism. Instead, Noah decided to turn to the religion of his parents for comfort. He began praying to God to absolve his sins before he died, and it became a habit over time as the survivors' ghoulification worsened. Eventually, other survivors joined in Noah's prayers, and they begged for salvation in darkness. As time wore on, Noah began to notice things. The survivors no longer seemed to need almost any food or water, and wounds that once plagued them now miraculously healed. Noah interpreted this as a sign of a divine miracle, and his followers believed his words. His mind addled by radiation and his own power, Noah declared himself a prophet of the God of a new world and began handing down doctrine to his small band of followers. In the next two years, Noah's beliefs twisted and mutated just as his body had in the darkness. Noah came to believe that the darkness of the Robco basement was the real God, and he named it the Shroud, a name that would stick. He also began declaring that the mutations that the survivors had been granted were blessing, and that the world above rightfully belonged to them. Noah did not really believe his own words at first, but the isolation of the basement shaped his mind to believe his own words. With time, the survivors became fanatics. Noah's most fervent follower was a man by the name Lee, who urged Noah to endorse violence for the self-defense instead of his forefathers' pacifism. Noah took this to mind, and he eventually did abandon his message of pacifism at Lee's urging. By 2079, the survivors in the Robco basement had more or less given up on being rescued, as they could not open the entrance to the basement, and it seemed blocked by debris. The little ghoul cult seem satisfied with their position, and they made no effort to escape. However, they would reemerge to see the world again whether they liked it or not... Climbing the Ladder The scavengers picking around the ruins of Meridian thought that the remains of the Robco building would contain some nice pre-War technology. The building yielded some technological treasures, but the real find was the people trapped in the basement. The survivors were ghoulified like the scavengers, and they seemed kind of deranged. The scavenger’s leader, John Quinn, debated whether to let the survivors out as they might be dangerous. The scavengers eventually decided to crack open the basement hatch and wish the survivors hello. When the basement hatch was cracked open, the ghouls fled the light like cockroaches. Noah and Lee were the only ones to stand strong against the light that cut into the room. Asked if they would like to come up above, Noah gave a short speech to his followers, and they ascended the ladder to see the surface world. The flash of sunlight temporarily blinded Noah and his followers as they emerged, but their eyes adjusted soon enough. The Robco building had been leveled during the war, but Meridian remained, alive but not intact. The city was now under the thumb of some remaining US Army soldiers who had secured Meridian as a safe zone for survivors. Soon enough, all Noah's followers were all out in the sun staring around at the surface for the first time in two years. Noah would then make a declaration that the religious cult he established would not die with their emergence. After all, they were the children of the wasteland and the designated heirs of this new blasted land. Blessed with abilities beyond any normal human, the mutants under Noah would continue their dogmatic beliefs. Noah Bollinger and his followers quickly set up shop in the crumbling remains of an estate, and they would rebuild the little estate in the next twenty years to become something livable. Around 2110, the cult, then called the Brethren, were fully formed and set itself up as a significant force within Meridian. The concept of the Shroud became more and more solid in the minds of the Brethren, and they became more zealous. By 2150, the Brethren had become the Brethren of the Shroud. For nearly a century, Noah and his fellow survivors would ruminate in their estate letting the soldiers rule Meridian. At that point, Noah had no higher ambitions than to maintain his small group. At the same time, Noah's friend Lee agitated to aggressively proselytize to the ghouls in Meridian and to assert the Brethren's mutant supremacist ideology. Noah more or less yawned at Lee's agitations for a long time while his friend went out and about preaching to the people of Meridian. The thing that began to catch Noah's attention was when the ghoul soldiers began playing politics. Good Intentions In the late 2190's and early 2200's, Matthias Dugan blazed his way across the Gulf of Mexico, and he cut a swath through the various groups and city-states of the coast. The cyborg warlord's actions scared the ghouls in Meridian, and the soldiers stirred themselves to marshal some potential opposition to Dugan. So then was the birth of the Mutant Free Republic. Noah Bollinger took notice of this and was skeptical of the ghoul soldiers wanting to cooperate with unmutated humans. The Republic, in Noah's words, was a mistake. The men would never see ghouls as their equals, and they would betray Meridian in the end, Noah was sure of it. The ghoul soldiers disregarded the Brethren, and they instead eagerly took part in the Mutant Free Republic, confident in their own abilities. In the following years, more towns joined the Republic. Noah became over time more agitated as the soldiers invited more and more humans to Meridian. With the threat of Matthias Dugan fading and expansion causing strain, the Republic began to fray. Noah watched this all with sanctimonious eyes, and Lee urged him to take action. Noah however did not want to directly oppose the Mutant Free Republic, and he instead waited for the Republic to fall on its own. And so it did in 2224 when civil society fell apart in the Mutant Free Republic. Slidell fell to a dictator and soon enough the Republic was consumed by civil war. By 2225, the Mutant Free Republic lost all of its territory except for Meridian which was also in chaos. The army remnants who initially had run the show were now toothless failures, and it seemed to Noah that it was past time to step up as the city´s new leader. Many of his disciples tried to caution him, but Lee urged him on, hungry for power and influence. Noah Bollinger made his move at the town hall of Meridian and spoke his piece to the city´s mutants, who made up the majority of the population. He preached that the Republic had been doomed from the start, and that mutants and humans would never be able to get along. Instead, Noah argued that mutants, ghouls specifically, should have their own state to govern themselves. That would be much better, Noah argued. Many former Republic ghoul soldiers drifted towards Noah, and their feelings of resentment for being "betrayed" by humans made them sympathetic to the Brethren of the Shroud. Incidents between baseline humans and ghouls intensified as those opposed to the Brethren urged the remaining Republic forces to do something. The small band of Republic soldiers still left were helpless to do anything. For weeks, this went on as more and more people rallied to Noah´s cause. Eventually, the Brethren of the Shroud finally seized control from the Republic in a bloodless fashion and established themselves in Meridian as its new capital. Great change was approaching. The Brethren of Shroud found itself in a predicament immediately upon taking power in Meridian. There were still non-mutants in the city who had not fled upon the Brethren taking power. Noah's followers initially urged him not to expunge the humans, as many of them were friends and neighbors. Lee even agreed with this sentiment for once, saying that it was too soon. Noah did not listen to this, and he commanded the humans to leave or die. Most of the them left then and there, but some defiantly stayed put. With that, Noah commanded his followers to purge the remaining humans. With that, Meridian became the first mutant stronghold of the Brethren of the Shroud. After that, the Prophet of the Shroud focused more on features of doctrine and internal matters while his newly appointed Bishop of Meridian (Lee) dealt with worldly matters. He appointed clergy to govern Meridian and the Brethren's future territory, if all went well. Most of these clergy were appointed from Noah's most loyal followers who had followed him up from the basement of the Robco building. The land in around Meridian was soon redistributed from humans to mutants. He also had many ruins demolished to build new stronger buildings. Soon enough, Lee was also urging Noah to expand the Brethren's territory. The Prophet agreed with Lee, and they set about organizing an army. Noah exploited the memory of the Mutant Free Republic to rally support from the resentful masses. By 2230, Noah had accumulated as many soldiers as he needed. That was when the conquests began. Noah let Bishop Lee do the heavy lifting in these wars, and he mostly stayed behind in Meridian keeping things afloat. He worked tirelessly training new clerics and outlining the Brethren's doctrine of mutant supremacy as the Brethren's message spread like wildfire. The Brethren missionaries, created by Bishop Lee in 2230, spread the Shroud across the land. Mutants from all over the Southern wastes began flooding to their banner, and at that moment, Noah saw himself as unstoppable. The Road to Hell Noah Bollinger and the Brethren of the Shroud were on the rise. The Brethren was rapidly expanding, and their enemies were collapsing in front of them. Mudpie, Hatt, Laurel, and others fell to the Brethren's armies. Many Hillfolk and Swampers had sworn their allegiance to the Brethren, and they were now fighting the Brethren's enemies for them. As these victories piled up, the spoils of war were brought back to Meridian, and Noah once again shifted his accommodations. Instead of the compound he once resided in, Noah would now reside in am immense palace built by his loyal followers in the historic Threefoot Building in 2240. The various spoils of war were brought to the palace, and Noah enjoyed these spoils, including food, pre-War products, and films. Noah especially enjoyed watching films with his Bishops when they returned from the field. By 2256, Noah had decided that it was time for further expansion. He knew of the presence of the Klansmen Confederacy further west and decided the path lay north and south. So, Noah organized his bishops for two campaigns: one on the Gulf Coast and one in the Golden Triangle. Both campaigns succeeded with the one in the south doing much better. However, expansion would halt for many years after that as Columbus Gate resisted and Slidell remained problematic. So, Noah's grand plan for taking The Big Easy never materialized. As expansion stagnated, the Prophet attempted to stave off that stagnation by once again announcing that all mutants were welcome in the Brethren, adding the addendum even those who had committed crimes. More mutants flowed in after that, including a small group of super mutants from the West Coast. One of those super mutants, Warwick, grew to become a good friend of Noah's, and from Warwick, Noah learned of the Master and the Unity. The Prophet recognized the mistake inherent in the Master's plan but waylaid his own worries by declaring that the presence of fertile mutants in the Brethren such as the Swampers and the Hillfolk nullified that concern. In the 2260's, Noah began experiencing his first reservations about what he was doing. The appeal of men just wanting to live their lives under Brethren oppression gave Noah second thought about what he was doing. Also, the flaws present in all the mutants present in the Brethren made Noah wonder about his own race's supremacy. The super mutants and ghouls were immortal but infertile. The hillfolk and swampfolk were fertile, but they were rather dull in comparison to their fellows in the Brethren. These thoughts plagued Noah for several years, but he put them aside as his project was bigger than himself. It would be selfish to put aside all that he had done just because of a few doubts. So, Noah soldiered on, and he continued to command his bishops to war upon the Brethren's enemies. The Crucifix War The Prophet was first made aware of the massacre in the ruins of Jackson in late 2268. The Bishop of Meridian hungered the avenge the slain clerics while Noah was cautious about opening another front, as the Brethren were still fighting Columbus Gate and the Royaume. It took over a year before the Bishop was able to persuade the Prophet to go to war. For the next couple years, the Bishop of Meridian led the war effort in the west while Noah held down the fort in Meridian itself. Also, Noah coordinated the Swamp Brethren Confederation's entry into the Crucifix War which assisted the Brethren greatly. However, the war eventually would turn against the Brethren, and Noah could plainly see it. Jackson was besieged, and the Bishop of Meridian had disobeyed his orders to withdraw. At that point, Noah had lost confidence in his old friend, but he did want to save the mutants in the Bishop's army. Mobilization of the Brethren's forces was slow, but he was able to send the Bishop's army supplies for the next three years. In December 2273, the Bishop's army finally broke out of Jackson, and Noah quickly rallied his own army to meet his old friend. Bollinger commanded the Bishop of Boardtown to link up with the Bishop of Meridian as quickly as possible, take command, and stage a counterattack. In the summer of 2274, Noah communicated with the Bishop of Meridian over radio as the armies met on I-20 for the first time in three years. Both men were very angry at each other, and for a few days, they argued with one another for hours on end. The Bishop felt that Noah had lost his convictions while the Prophet saw the Bishop as an annoyance. In the end, Noah reprimanded the Bishop of Meridian and handed off command of both armies off to the Bishop of Boardtown, a more competent servant. The Battle of the Wild and the Forrest Massacre soon followed, and the war neared Meridian. Noah became increasingly afraid that the Klansmen would break through the Brethren's lines and would sack his city. Luckily for Prophet Bollinger, the Battle of Forrest would stop the progress of the Klan army east. When the Klansmen sent an emissary to negotiate a peace, Noah happily jumped on the opportunity, perhaps too quickly for some Brethren. The Bishop of Meridian negotiated, with a constant radio connection being kept with Prophet Bollinger in Meridian. Eventually, the Treaty of Forrest was forged between the two nations, and peace was reached at last after almost five years of war. A Growing Regret The Crucifix War's end brought a new era to Noah Bollinger's life. Ever since the end of the war, Noah has become more distant from his followers and his lone friend, the benighted Bishop of Meridian. The Prophet of the Shroud has had his faith shaken, and he has taken to isolation to mull over his situation. That mostly involves sulking in his palace while his clergy do the day to day business of the Brethren. Most of the Prophet’s time has recently been spent watching pre-War holodisks and reading books about religion. Noah’s servants have become increasingly concerned about him over time, and the local clergy have been discussing whether they should stage a sort of “intervention” for their Prophet. Noah Bollinger would prefer to be left alone right now, as he just wants to find a sign or an answer to the uncertainty he is facing. The Prophet’s ideology of mutant supremacy was cracked by the bloody Crucifix War, where an archaic relic of the Old World fought the Brethren to a standstill. How could the Shroud’s chosen be stopped in their tracks by a couple of racists with rifles? Noah does not have an answer currently, but he is still looking for one in the literature of the Old World. Perhaps the Shroud only rewards his believers in the afterlife? Maybe the mutated and unmutated could live alongside each other as equals? Noah’s is open to these options, but he has not made up his mind yet. The return of Noah’s hatred of his ghoul appearance has only made things more difficult. Uncertainty reigns currently. Personality Noah Bollinger's personality is one that has changed dramatically over the years. Noah's one consistent feature throughout time is his intelligence, which has assisted him greatly in his survival and the formation of the Brethren of the Shroud. Although his pre-War expertise was mostly focused towards mathematics and physics, Noah expanded his repertoire to include his own unique theology and realpolitik. Changing circumstances have led to Noah becoming very adaptable to various situations, due to his lofty intelligence. In Noah's early life, he was very cunning and had great ambitions for his future. He wanted to advance to the higher ranks of RobCo and was willing to use immoral means to do so. After the war and his ghoulification, Noah became highly religious and put his prior ambitions behind. Noah became a zealot for the Brethren's cause, and he became extremely intolerant of non-mutants. The bombs falling resulted in Noah having a sort of mental break where he directed what had started as self-hatred towards his own rotting body towards others, using religion to justify this. As the years have gone by however, Noah has come to realize the gravity of his own actions as the Prophet of the Shroud. This uncertainty has led to depression and isolation, with Noah locking himself up in his chambers in Meridian for months at a time. He takes much of this time to read books and watch pre-War films while also occasionally drinking some alcohol. Noah has also removed all reflective surfaces from his personal quarters as he has somewhat fallen back into his old habits of self-hatred. Appearance Noah’s appearance is standard for any ghoul in the post-War era, with rot and green-tinted skin. Noah Bollinger had a rather plain appearance before the war, with sandy-colored hair inherited from his father and pale skin from both sides of the family. After the war, Noah became a ghoul with all the body horror that came with. The only distinguishing feature of Noah’s physical appearance is a small winestain birthmark on his temple shaped like a pentagon. This birthmark has remained even after Noah's ghoulification. Noah greatly resents his current physical appearance and wishes he could go back to his life before the war. The clothing Noah wears is almost exclusively pre-War. Noah models his aesthetic off of the popular celebrities around 2077, and he particularly likes the singers of the pre-War era. Whenever Noah is around his Brethren followers, he instead reluctantly wears the formal vestments of his religion. The High Prophet has to keep up appearances, but he hates whenever he has to wear it. Family *'Isaac Bollinger' - Eldest son of Erisman Bollinger, a humble man of simple tastes; perpetually stuck in the middle class, died in 2077. **'Emilia Bollinger' - Isaac’s Romansh-speaking wife, a homemaker foremost, died in 2077. **'Noah Bollinger' - Isaac’s only child, a technical genius, survived the war to become a ghoul, leader of the Brethren of the Shroud *'Leon Bollinger' - Younger son of Erisman Bollinger, soldier in the Swiss Army, died at Locarno in 2065 during the Resource Wars. *'Mia Schneider' - Only daughter of Erisman Bollinger, an adventurous spirit, ran away with a con man, survived the Great War but later starved to death in 2078 **'Accola Schneider' - Mia’s husband, a con man who traveled across Switzerland, former communist, died in 2077. **'Sylviane Abatangelo' - Mia’s daughter, mildly autistic, lived with her parents her entire life, died in 2077. **'Willard Schneider' - Mia’s son, paranoid survivalist, threatened to kill his mother when she tried to enter his fallout shelter, survived the Great War and sired progeny, died around 2100, descendants are counted among the Swiss Cockroaches. Equipment Noah has very little equipment aside from some basic things. He does not necessarily need to carry around any weapons or currency since he has people who can deal with that kind of stuff. Quotes By About Category:Ghouls Category:Mississippi